We are not impressed with this weather!

Last Friday the pups were 12 weeks old and able to be taken for walks outside. They have become very used to having their harnesses and leads on and walk relatively well along the decking so we were looking forward to taking them out. Unfortunately, a combination of me having flu and the weather being atrocious led us not to take that first walk as planned. We were due to go to the vets in the evening as the pups were due to have their rabies injections, so that they can travel to and from Spain with us, so their first walk out was across the car park at the vets.

We had to wait for Saturday before we took them out for the first time. They both seemed really keen to get out of the front door, Neil took Brandy and I had Brinkley. We decided we would just walk around the block which would take them along a busy road, across a couple of estate roads and see how they reacted to the noises and the traffic.

The cars didn’t seem to cause either of them a problem, Brandy just carried on walking, Brinkley stopped and looked. When we got to cross the first road, we stopped and asked both dogs to sit prior to crossing and as they are both excellent at sitting, they did this without a problem.
The walk was fairly uneventful, we only passed one other dog, which they both said hello to and then moved on. We didn’t see any buses or lorries, so nothing that worried them and we got back home having had a positive first walk.

Yesterday, I took them out by myself, now that is a totally new experience. I went along the park which was new for them and they walk for 10 yards side by side and then both decide they want to go in different directions. Fortunately, they aren’t very heavy at the moment so they are easy to get back in the same direction. At the moment I have lost my voice due to the flu and the dogs haven’t heard me speak to them for 5 days. This makes training them incredibly difficult, you cannot tell them when they do right or when they do wrong. It’s going to come as a bit of a shock when I can talk again. It does feel as if their training has been on hold for a week, but they have been extremely good while I've been ill and they are both very good at giving cuddles, they like nothing more than curling up on the settee with me.